If we visit the Works of Martin Luther (The Castle Press,1931) we find that in his 'On War Against the Turk' (1529), Luther said "to fight against the Turk is the same thing as resisting God, who visits our sin upon us with this rod."

The pope and his crowd, claimed Luther, were "all in all, and through all, like God in the world." But they wanted to be the best Christians in the world too, hence the pope urged war against the Turks. Yet these so-called Christians would "endure no evil, suffer neither compulsion nor wrong. I opposed them with this saying of Christ that Christians shall not resist evil, butsuffer all things and let all things go."

Luther charged the pope with using the Turkish war as a "conjurer's hat" to fulfil his own agenda. Luther was not pleased by the fact "that the Christians and the princes were driven, urged, and irritated into attacking the Turk and making war on him, before they amended their own ways and lived like Christians."

Furthermore: "Again, if I were a soldier and saw in the field a priests' banner, or banner of the cross, even though it were a crucifix I should run as though the devil were chasing me."

Luther advocated the ultimate Protestant hypocrisy: the separation of Words from Works, that there be no confusion of office and duties between Church and State. Carrying hypocrisy and contradiction to the breaking point, he did not forbid Protestants to bear arms. Luther was moved to state that the Turks would not be so powerful if all soldiers were Christians; nonetheless, war with the Turks, he said, "is against His doctrine, because He says Christians shall not resist evil, shall not fight or quarrel, not take revenge or insist on rights. It is against His name, because in such an army there are scarcely five Christians, and perhaps worse people in the eyes of God than are the Turks; and yet they would all bear the name of Christ. This is the greatest of all sins and one that no Turk commits, for Christ's name is used for sin and shame and thus dishonored."

Luther claimed that his doctrinal contradictions were "God's mysteries" therefore justified. In effect, Luther's god is a mystery not to be found on Earth except in the terror of his arbitrariness and ambiguity; thus is this god unseen in heaven while the status quo remains on Earth. At least the time was not meet for a Kingdom of God in his day, thus he urged the princes to "stab and kill" his erstwhile supporters, the peasants who marched under the sacred Rainbow Banner - 100,000 brethren were slaughtered by well-armed professional soldiers.

Therefore it is safe to assume that, paradoxically,  Christians are and are not to bear arms. In either case they will no doubt suffer; and that is as it should be, for the Lord has ordained that, although He is on high, yet He is nearest to ones he has broken and crushed. Now the crushed might argue that the Lord should be the highest god of the oppressed poor, therefore He should stab and kill the rich; but that is not what Luther had in mind - of course an exception might be made for rich and powerful Catholics conspiring against Protestant princes; Luther might condone such an action after the fact, but he would not directly recommend it in advance.

Be that as it may, Luther suffered his own day and age and his own hypocrisy, just as we suffer our time and our hypocrisy - albeit in a different manner. Now as long as we draw a difference between the ideal and the real, we shall be hypocrites. Although certain general principles remain, circumstances do change over time; one might hope that old-time religion would change accordingly, and that its role model would be a kinder god - a Creator far more benevolent in the first place, in the place of an Almighty Abusive Father of Terrorism.

Before defending of his anti-war position, Luther put his finger on the problem of change: "But it is not fair to forget how things stood in the world, and what my grounds and reasons were, and still keep my words and apply them to another situation where those grounds and reasons do not exist. With this kind of art, who could not make the Gospel a pack of lies or pretend that it contradicted itself?"

Indeed! And why not admit that the old good news is as ambiguous, arbitrary, and contradictory as its authors were? Well, the holy fathers have admitted as much, attributed the absurdities to our own ignorance, and praised paradox as "mystery." For instance, Augustine, in his 'Second Discourse on Psalm 33' (34):

V.19: The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart, and He will save the humble of spirit. God is supreme; let a Christian be humble. If he would have God on high become his neighbor, he, for his part, must be lowly. Brethren, these are great mysteries. God is above all; you exalt yourself and do not get near Him; you humble yourself, and He comes down to you.

V.20: Many are the afflictions of the just. Does the Psalmist say: "Let Christians be just and listen to my works, and then they will suffer no affliction"? No, this is not his promise; he says: "Many are the afflictions of the just. The truth is, if men are unjust, they suffer fewer afflictions; if they are just, they suffer many. But after a few afflictions or none at all, the former reach everlasting affliction, from which they will never be delivered: whereas after many afflictions the just received everlasting peace, where they will never suffer any evil. Many are the afflictions of the just, but out of them all will the Lord deliver them.